MCC
Located in the Newstead Works in Barlaston, MCC is the industrial building corporation for the city of Stoke-on-Trent. John Maxwell, a local builder, set up Maxwell’s Construction Company in the 1960s. Run as a small but reliable concern for many years, Maxwell’s gained a solid local reputation which saw their fortunes remain steady despite the fluctuations in the building market during the 70s; they went on to capitalise on this local standing to become the favoured construction company for the local council during the boom period of the early 80s and kept up (despite the recession) a steady stream of municipal works into the1990s when John retired, handing control of the company to his son, Simon. Simon Maxwell took over the company in 1995 and decided to expand on what his father had built. During 1996, despite an apparently shaky beginning when there were rumours that the company was about to go under, Maxwell’s new CEO’s blindsided many industry watchers when he unexpectedly bought up a series of other local businesses that had been struggling in the low housing market, amalgamating them all under the company’s new trading name of MCC. In a further surprise move, Simon Maxwell then sold the company (with most shares going to his former managers who now comprise four of the five Directors on the Board) and retired himself on the profits of his endeavours. The new MCC, with its long history of local municipal projects, was the council’s first choice to head up the rebuilding of the city centre after the 1998 explosion. Working closely with the co-ordinators of the Phoenix Project (or Hanley Reprisal Initiative as it was officially known), MMC became the focus of national interest and city pride as the previously dilapidated Hanley was rebuilt to set new national standards for city centre planning and urban living. With the profits from the Hanley rebuild and its focus now moving beyond the limits of the city. In the early spring of 1999, MCC bought out the local haulage firm J. L. Leech, sold off its public transport and postal delivery concerns and transformed it into MCC Transport Subsidiaries. MCC Transport was soon carrying nationwide, providing both for MCC’s own transport needs and hiring vehicles out on contract to other companies in the area. Since then, this wing of MCC has expanded further and now supplies a range of industrial plant and construction machinery. At about this time, MCC also began work on their most prestigious project to date: the restoration of Caverswall Castle after the fire that had decimated this historic building. This project demanded a wider scope from the company that ever before, and in-house architects, engineers and surveyors were added to the company’s growing staff. Since the completion of the Castle Project, this Development Department has continued to expand, taking on planners and interior designers; it is widely anticipated that MCC will bid for Stoke’s private town planning contract within the next few months. In fact, it appears that it is only the recent difficulties with the city council that prevented the Development Department getting the contract this year. MCC had been commissioned by Sean Bowden (following his shock success in the polls) for a massive project to expand the city’s housing stock over the Hartshill parkland. Legal wrangles beset the project from the start, with the council arguing over the design of the properties (the area, whilst constructed in the 2000s, looks as if its buildings cover a range of decades from the Victorian period onward) which they said differed too widely from the modern estates that planning permission had been issued for and MCC refusing to complete work so that the houses could be sold until they were guaranteed payment, following rumours that the money earmarked to fund the development had been siphoned off elsewhere. An agreement was finally reached whereby MCC completed the building works and the council passed the finished designs; this was done on the basis of a deal by which MCC would be paid for the work in monthly instalments over a number of years. Relations between MCC and the city council are only now returning to normal and the comfortable working relationship they once had has yet to be re-established. Always looking to further their horizons, MCC look set to make a move onto the national stage very soon. In the meantime, very little gets built in the city of Stoke-on-Trent without their involvement at some stage.